"The first victory we can claim is that our hearts are free of hatred. Hence we say to those who persecute us and who try to dominate us: ‘You are my brother. I do not hate you, but you are not going to dominate me by fear. I do not wish to impose my truth, nor do I wish you to impose yours on me. We are going to seek the truth together’. THIS IS THE LIBERATION WHICH WE ARE PROCLAIMING."
Oswaldo José Payá Sardiñas (2002)

Saturday, January 10, 2015

Cuban dissident beaten and arrested for wearing a bracelet with the word change

Marcelino Abreu was arrested for wearing a change bracelet and was repeatedly kicked by state security knocking out a tooth and broke his nose.

Marcelino Abreu Bonora: Jailed for wearing change bracelet*

Marcelino Abreu Bonora released after threats and confinement in Nieves Morejon prison

The
Cuban human rights activist Marcelino Abreu Bonora, who was arbitrarily
arrested last December 26 in this city, beaten and taken to a detention
center and later taken to the Nieves Morejon prison in Sancti Spiritus,
was released yesterday evening on January 6, 2014.

"On December 26th I was assaulted by Félix Hernández, State Security
captain of Department 21 when it was getting dark in the evening hours.
He pulled the bracelet that I had in my left hand that says 'Change' and
told me that I was counterrevolutionary and I replied that I was not counterrevolutionary that the ones who were counterrevolutionaries were
Fidel and Raul who had made secret negotiations, who had deceived the
Cuban people for 56 years. He told me that I didn’t need to talk about
it and he went up gave me a jab with the right elbow, he ordered the
patrol men to handcuff me.

They pushed me into the car and inside the it they
sprayed me in the eyes as they drove me to the station," said Abreu Bonora
via telephone to the Cuban Democratic Directorate.
The activist added that he had been threatened by the military that they would return him
to prison where he was released on October 24, 2014.

Marcelino also said that
he was subjected to inhuman treatment from the moment of his arbitrary
detention and was released after he made known his decision to declare
an indefinite hunger strike.

"I shouted 'Down with Fidel, down with Raul', he attacked me again, they
kicked me in the left breast, they hit me again, kicking me in the
mouth knocking out one of my front and lower teeth, again they hurt my
nasal septum twisted on the right side and I was bleeding most of the
night from my mouth and septum. Then they started slapping me in the
face and told me: 'impudent, thief, murderer, you are a
counterrevolutionary'. I kept shouting 'Down with Fidel, down with the
dictatorship', 'Long live human rights'," he explained.

Dozens of human rights activists and members of independent civil
society have been arbitrarily arrested in the past three weeks,
subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment and some are waiting to be
processed to swell the ranks of Cuban political prisoners.

The Castro
regime continues to imprison citizens who dissent
with the official policy of the dictatorship.